Started up from Bottcher's Gap after 7 on a mostly cloudy morning after substantial overnight rain. Got wet in the tunnels of brush beyond Lone Pine Camp, but made it to the summit with Mason in 5.5 hours. We bushwhacked a few minor summits on the way back, returning through cold wind and slushy rain at dusk. I'd like to return on a day with views less obscured to tackle a bigger adventure involving more peaks.

Overnight trip from Bottcher's Gap with Mike C. Miles of bushwacking after Pat Spring, especially between Puerto Suello Jct and Lone Pine camp, and around Little Pines camp, where one must walk/swim/crawl on hands and knees straight into walls of shrubbery.

Great, clear weather and super views as an overnight on the route from Bottcher's Gap. A little brushy at times but no so bad as the camp host made it out to be. With a bit more water on the route it'd be a great destination.

Started early from Pat Spring, tagged summit, then headed down to try Kandlbinder (4653') .. a lot of brush burned off in the fires of '08, but not quite enough :) Got to the window and decided to turn back. Talus, loose rock, sand, brush .. long day .. about 12.5 hours.

Next time maybe I'll try Kandlbinder via the north slope from the Little Sur drainage.

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Date climbed: 3-May-2008

Third time for me: started from Bottcher's Gap, tagged Mt. Carmel, spent the night at Pat Spring, then did the 15 mile hike to the VDC and back. Hiked out the next morning.

Very scratchy brush to push through south of Puerto Suello, but then it's always been that way when I've done it. Beautiful weather and wildflowers.
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Also did it in May 2001, and again in 2003 (hiked up the Big Pines trail from the dam that year - loads of poison oak).

Day hike from Bottcher's gap with a group of four friends. Departed 6:15am, reached the peak at around 2pm, and arrived back at Bottcher's Gap at around 10:25pm. The campground host seems pretty keen to warn people off dayhiking this peak, but we made it anyway :-)

The trail is pretty vague, due both to the fires and the regrowth after the fires --- I think we lost and regained the trail 4 times over the hike. This is no longer the highway of a trail it was a few years ago. The bushwhacking is also much worse than I remember from my last trip (2006?), although somewhat mitigated by the fact that a lot of the brush is now dead.

I left Bottcher’s Gap on Monday morning the 14th of April and had a nice hike to Pat’s Spring; clear views, clear trail and few ticks. I spent a windy night on the ridge there. Had some snow mixed with light hail. Tuesday morning, I set out for the Double Cone. The hike was great until I reached Puerto Suello trail junction. After that, eventhough I stuck to the Ventana trail, it was 3 miles of bushwhacking. I was crawling on my hands and knees through some parts due to the overgrowth. It added an hour or so to the hike. The summit was clear with great views in all directions. I spent the night there. I hiked back to Bottcher's Gap on Wednesday the 16th.

Solo dayhike. Great trail up Jackson Creek to about 3K ft marked with red, orange and yellow tags. I bush-wacked to about 3,250 ft. Brush suddenly becomes very bad. Moved up & over to left side and climbed (class 3) up to about 3,500. Granite is bad, I think there's a fault line in that area. Scree fields are also very unstable. There may be an easier route, I didn't have time to explore any further and turned back.

Hiked up the Carmel from Los Padres. Camped at Hiding Canyon. In the morning up the Puerto Suello to the summit then back to the truck at Los Padres Dam via the Big Pines Trail. Couldn't find the Pat Springs water source and thus had a long hot and dry hike from the summit to Los Padres Reservoir.

Camped at Pat Springs, then dayhiked VDC. Gorgeous, clear day.. I got to the summit early (~10:30a), so I decided to take a whack at the window, the deep notch about 2/3 of the way to Kandlbinder west along the ridge. The brush proved far too dense, however, and I was soon rebuffed. Then a long, tiresome hike all the way back to Bottchers Gap.

05/06/2006: Day hike from Bottchers Gap.
11/19/2005: Day hike from Los Padres Dam via Carmel River. Despite its bad press, this is a good route in autumn. River crossings were confusing in the dark.
11/14/2004: Day hike from Bottchers Gap. Black oaks had great fall color.